Press for ironing out pleats and the like



Feb. 23, 1965 I R. P. DOERER ETAL PRESS FOR IRONING OUT PLEATS AND THE LIKE 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed June 23, 1960 k mm 5 mm H, M D G. R m 6 m 0N T R 4 mm mum H RHW Feb. 23, 1965 R. P. DOERER ETAL 3,170,255

PRESS FOR IRONING OUT PLEATS AND THE LIKE Original Filed June 23. 1960 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS R/cmno I? Doug:

BY Heemw G. Guffin/ER wmwahwy Feb. 23, 1965 R. P. DOERER ETAL PRESS FOR IRONING OUT PLEATS AND THE LIKE Original Filed June 23. 1960 3 Sheets-Sheet 55 wmW/WJ;

United States Patent PRESS FQR HRGNHNG OUT PLEATS AND THE LEKE This application is a division of our copending application .Serial No. 38,402, filed June 23, 1960, and the invention relates generally to an apparatus for unpleating a piece of material.

Reinforced fabric panels of the instant type are manufactured by pleating a panel or piece of fabric material, and inserting reinforcing strands of wire or like material transversely through the pleats.

One object of this invention is to provide a press for ironing out the pleats in a pleated panel or piece of material, which is composed of a relatively few simple parts yet which is highly efficient and practically foolproof in operation.

Another object is to provide a press forironing out pleats comprising a pair of presser devices having presser elements, and means for supporting a pleated piece of material opposite the presser devices in a position such that the pleats on one side of the center line of the piece of material are adapted to be engaged by the elements of one presser device while the pleats on the opposite Side of the center line are adapted to be engaged by the elements of the other presser device.

Another object is to provide means for engaging and holding the piece of material along its center line against shifting movement transversely of the pleats during the unpleating or ironing operation.

' Another object is to provide a press for ironing out pleats in which the presser devices have rolls adapted to engage and iron out the pleated material, with means for rotating the rolls of one presser device in one direction and for rotating the rolls of the other presser device in the opposite direction.

Another object is to provide a press wherein the rolls are eccentric with respect to their axes of rotation so as to intermittently engage the pleats.

Another object is to provide a press for ironing out pleats comprising a pair .oflaterally spaced presser devices each comprising 'a plurality of parallel rolls, a support beneath the rolls for supporting the pleated piece of material in a position such that the pleats thereof extend longitudinally of the rolls and the pleats on one side of the center line of the piece of material are adapted to be engaged by the rolls of one presser device and the pleats on the opposite side of the center line are adapted to be engaged by the rolls of the other presser device, and means for rotating the rolls of one presser device in one direction and the rolls of the other presser device in the opposite direction.

Another object is to provide a press wherein each roll is formed with circumferentially extending longitudinally spaced grooves in its periphery respectively aligned with the grooves in the peripheries of the other rolls to clear thereinforcement strands in the piece of material.

Another object is to provide a press having an intermittently operated conveyor for moving the panel or piece of material to and from aposition between the web support and the presser devices.

Another object is to provide a press wherein the conveyor extends between the presser devices and the panel support and includes laterally spaced panel supporting conveyor elements, and wherein the panel support includes laterally spaced Web supporting elements Patented Feb. 23, 1 965 adapted to enter the spaces between the conveyor elements upon upward movement thereof to pick up the panel from the conveyor elements and move the same into engagement with the rolls.

Other objects and features of the invention will become more apparent as the following description proceeds, especially when considered with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a strand reinforced fabric article formed by the apparatus shown in FIG. 3;

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 22 of FIGURE 1, with. the left-hand portion of the article enlarged for the purpose of clarity;

FIGURE 3 is a'plan view schematically showing a complete apparatus for manufacturing the strand reinforced fabric articles, and showing also the positions of certain fabric articles as they are advanced through the apparatus;

FIGURE 4 is a side elevational view of the press for ironing out pleats, which is a part of thecomplete apparatus shown in FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a perspective View showing the operations performed on a fabric panel by the FIGURE 3 apparatuses the panel travels therethrough;

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged view taken on the line 6-6 of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary view looking in the direction of the arrow 7 in FIGURE 6; and

FIGURE 8 illustrates in end elevation a modified roll of one of the presser devices.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings and especially to FIGURES 1 and 2, there is shown an insulator pad or panel 10 comprising a length ,or piece of burlap 12 having its edge portions extended over strips of paper 14. The paper strips extend beyond the edges of the burlap and are turned onto the upper face of the burlap as shown at 1t in FIGURE 2. The turned edge portions 16 are suitably secured to the burlap, for example by the stitching 18.

In order to reinforce the piece of material or panel, there are provided a number of strands of wire20 each of'the strands being preferably undulatory or spiral in configuration as shown in FIGURES 1 and 2. The ends of the reinforcing strands 20 are preferably knotted as shown at 22 in FIGURES 1 and 2. The paper webs 14 shield the wire knots which might otherwise prove to be a safety hazard in handling and which might undesirably lock adjacent panels together when they are stacked on one another.

Referring particularly to FIGURES 3 and 5, the fabric burlap material is taken from a supply reel 24 and advanwd beneath a vertically reciprocable cutter 86 which cuts the burlap material into individual panels of a predetermined dimension (in the direction of the arrow 87). Theroll 38 shown in FIGURE 3 is part of the drive mechanism for advancing the burlap material from the reel 24. Actually roll 38 is an idler and presses the burlap into driven engagement with a feed roll (not shown) beneath roll 38. The numeral 42 designates a collection trough for excess burlap material andthe rolls 46, 48 feed the burlap from the trough across the cutter 86.

The panels cut from the burlap material by the blade 86 are deposited on the conveyor which moves intermittently past various stations where separate operations are performed in the manufacture of the strand reinforced article. The conveyor 70 includes the laterally spaced endless conveyor chains 71 which are trained over sprockets on the longitudinally spaced shafts 72. Suitable means (not shown) are provided to intermittently drive the conveyor chains 71 and thus advance the cut panels on the top runs of the conveyor chains through various devices employed in the manufacture of the panel. The top runs of the conveyor chains of course lie in a common horizontal plane and are parallel to one another and extend longitudinally of the conveyor.

Referring again to FIGURE 3, the numerals 12a and 12!; represent cut panels in position along the length of the conveyor 7% prior to their movement into the pleater mechanism 96.

The pleater d6, as well as the other parts of the apparatus diagrammatically shown in FIGURES 3 and S are fully disclosed in our copending application Serial No. 38,402, and reference is made to such copending application for a more complete description and illustration. For the purposes of this application; however, it will not be necessary to further describe the pleater other than to point out that the panel is thereby pleated to assume the condition shown at 263 in FIGURE 5.

While the panel is still in a pleated condition at the pleater station, hollow pointed tubes or needles 344 are passed transversely through the pleats in the arrow 345 direction. The panel 120 is shown at the pleater station in FIGURE 3. Immediately after the needles pass through the pleats, the rolls 142 and 146 are rotated to drive the wire strands 2% into the hollow needles. It will be noted that the wire strands are taken from the supply reels 98 in a non-undulatory condition. The strand undulations are formed in the undulating mechanism generally indicated at 1M. While FIGURE 5 shows only one needle and one wire strand, it will be appreciated from a study of FIGURE 3 that in actual practice a multiplicity of the needles and strands are employed. The needles are of course simultaneously passed through the pleats, and the wire strands are simultaneously inserted into the respective needles.

The needles act as guides to permit the undulatory wire strands to be rapidly advanced into and through the panel pleats without interference from the fibers of the panels. When the strands have been advanced into the tubes (or while they are being advanced therein) the tubes are retracted from the pleats, leaving the undulatory strands 2t) embedded or disposed within the pleats. The strands are then cut off and knotted at both ends by the automatic mechanisms 367 and 369. It will be understood that during the pleating, needle insertion, strand insertion, wire cutoff and knotting operations, the conveyor 70 is halted so that the panels thereon do not move.

After the knotting operations, the panel-strand article (with the panel still in a pleated condition) is advanced by the conveyor 70 into position beneath rollers 510 of the press 500 which rotate about fixed axes to iron out the panel pleats and return the panel to a flat condition. In this connection, the wire strands extending through the pleated panel frictionally engage the fibers thereof and tend to retain the pleated condition. Referring to FIGURE 3, the panel 12d is in a position between the pleater mechanism 95 and the unpleater or press 500 for ironing out the pleats, and the panel 12s in FIGURE 3 is located at the unpleater station.

After the pleats are ironed out, the panel is then advanced by the conveyor 70 through the space between two traveling paper webs 14 which are taken from supply reels 30 and folded about the fabric panel edges by means ofthe folder structures 542. As shown in FIGURE 3, the paper webs, prior to being folded, pass through glue pots at the adhesive applying station 544.

The wire reinforced and paper edged fabric panel is then advanced over the adhering mechanism shown in FIGURE 5 and comprising the automatic stapling guns 634. The paper is at this time still in the form of a continued strip, and the strip is therefore cut through at appropriate points by the automatic cutters 646. As the last operation, the complete panel assembly is passed onto the trap doors 670 and 672, which automatically swing down at a pro-appointed time to discharge the panel 4 into a shipping carton 694. When the carton is filled with a certain number or weight of panels, it is replaced with an empty carton.

The foregoing has been a very brief description of the entire machine for manufacturing the wire reinforced, paper edged panel assemblies, and for a more detailed description thereof reference is made to our copending application Serial No. 38,402.

The present application deals primarily with the flattening of the reinforced fabric panels and particularly with the unpleater or press for ironing out and smoothing the pleats. During the knotting operations, the fabric panel is held in a pleated condition. The wire strands 20 are frictionally engaged with the burlap fibers and therefore the burlap tends to retain its pleated condition even after it is removed from the pleater station 96.

In order to return the burlap to a substantially flat configuration there is provided the ironing or flattening station 509 shown in FIGURES 4 and 6. It will be noted from FIGURE 4 that the conveyor chains 70 run through the flattening station so as to convey pleated panels from the pleater station. The panels must be lifted from the conveyor chains '71 to effect the flattening or unpleating operation. Referring particularly to FIG- URES 4 and 6, the press or unpleater structure 500 has a frame .Stll including a horizontal plate 501. The frame 501 also includes the corner uprights 503 and the top plate member 583' fixed upon the upper ends of the uprights. The uprights straddle the conveyor '70, so that panels on the conveyor can be moved through the unpleater 5th) from left to right in FIG. 4.

In order to lift the panels or pieces of material from the conveyor chains 71, a vertically movable support or elevator 502 is provided. Elevator 502 is raised and lowered by a cylinder 564 mounted on the frame plate 591'. The elevator comprises a horizontal base plate 595, and spaced horizontal I-beams 507 are fixed upon the top surface of the base plate 565. Spaced horizontal I-beams 5%, extending crosswise of the I-beams 507, are secured on the top surfaces of the I-beams 507. A bed plate use is fixed upon the top surfaces of the I-beams 509, and a plurality of laterally spaced blocks 5% are secured upon the top surface of bed plate 509. In the lower position of the elevator, illustrated in FIG- URES 4 and 6, the top surfaces of the blocks 506, which occupy a horizontal plane, are disposed beneath the top flight of the conveyor chains '71. The spacing of the blocks 566 is such that when the elevator is raised the blocks pass upwardly through the spaces between the conveyor chains, and the panel supported on the top flight of the conveyor chains is lifted therefrom by the top surfaces of the blocks 5%. One of the blocks 506 lies directly beneath an overlying bar 503 secured to the top plate member 503' of frame 501. Bar 508 is located midway between the two laterally spaced presser devices 519 and 510 which will be more fully described hereinafter. The bar 508 may be rubber faced and/ or spring loaded in a downward direction. When the elevator 502 is raised, the fabric panel is lifted from the conveyor chains 71 by the blocks 506 and the central portion of the panel is gripped between the bar 508 and one of the blocks 506 on the elevator.

The smoothing or flattening of the panels is carried out by the two laterally spaced presser devices 510 and 510' mounted on the presser frame 501 above the conveyor 70 and above elevator 502. The presser device 510 includes rolls 511 and 512, and presser device 510' includes rolls 513 and 514. The axes of rotation of the rolls are parallel to one another and extend longitudinally with respect to the conveyor 70 and lie in a common horizontal plane. The bar 508 occupies a center position with respect to the conveyor '70 and to the press 500, and the presser devices 510 and 510' are located on opposite sides of and spaced equal distances from bar 508. These rolls are adapted to peripherally I engage the panel when the elevator is raised, to iron out the panel pleats. The pleats of course extend longitudinally or parallel to the roll axes.

In the illustrated construction (FIG. 6), the rolls 511 and 512 of the right hand presser. device 510 are powered in a counter-clockwise direction to iron or smooth out the pleats in the right hand portion of the burlap panel. The rolls 513 and 514 of the left hand presser device 510' are powered in a clockwise direction to smooth or iron out the pleats in the left hand portion of the panel. Rolls 511 and 513 may, if desired, be constructed as eccentric devices so as to have intermittent contact with the fabric surfaces. FIGURE 8 illustrates a modified roll 511 which is like roll 511 except that its periphery is eccentric with respect to its axis of rotation. It will be understood that eccentric roll 511' may be substituted if desired for roll 5:11, and a similar eccentric roll may be substituted for roll 513.

As above indicated, the central portion of the panel is gripped between bar 5% and the subjacent block when the elevator 502'is raised so as to preclude any bodily .lateral shift of the panel.

Power for operating the rolls 511-514 is in the illustrated embodiment derived from an electric motor 516 mounted on top plate 503 which .has its driveshaft affixed to a sprocket 520. An endless chain 518 is trained around sprocket 520 and the other a .three sprockets 522, 524' and 526 so as to be driven in the arrow 527 direction by the motor 516. Sprocket 526 is carried on a shaft which extends through the unpleating station to connection with another sprocket, about which is trained an endless chain 529. This chain is trained around another'sprocket carried on the shaft of roll 512 so as to cause the shaft to rotate in the desired direction (counter-clockwise in FIG. 6). The

shaft for roll 512 carries another sprocket about which is trained the endless chain 531, said chain also being trained around a sprocket affixed to the shaft for roll 511 the arrangement being such that roll 511 is driven counter-clockwise to effect the ironing out operation.

It will be seen from FIGURE 6 that the sprocket arrange-ment-is such that sprocket 524 rotates in a clockwise direction. The shaft for sprocket 524 carries a second sprocket which is aligned with a sprocket on the shaft for roll 514. An endless chain 529a is trained around these sprockets to rotate the roll 514- in a clockwise direction. The shaft for roll 514 carries an additional sprocket, and an endless chain 531a is provided to transmit clockwise rotation to the roll 513 for ironing out purposes.

During the smoothing operation it is not desirable that the rubber rolls in any way act against the undulatory wire reinforcement strands 29, since such action machine rolls. In order to prevent any undesired contact between the rubber rolls and the wire strands each i the conveyor 70, the cylinder 504 is operated to raise the elevator 502 from its FIGURE 6 position to cause the blocks 506 to pass upwardly between the conveyor chains '71 and lift a panel off the conveyor chains and elevate the panel into frictional contact with the rolls 511-514. In the raised position of the elevator, the midsection of the panel will be gripped between the fixed bar 5% and one of the elevator blocks 506 to prevent it from shifting laterally. The counterclockise rotation of the rolls 511 and 512 of the right hand presser device 510 will iron out the pleats and smooth the material of the right hand portion of the panel. The clock- .might undesirably cause a jamming or wearing of the a wise rotation of the rolls 513 and 514 of the left hand presser device 510 will serve to iron out the pleats and smooth the material of the left hand portion of the panel. Suflicient frictional contact between the rolls and the panel should be available to effect the unpleating and smoothing out of the panel, although too much pressure should be avoided to prevent tearing of the panel. If rolls 511 and 513 are replaced by eccentric rolls as illustrated in FIG. 8, they will have an intermittent contact with the fabric. Upon completion of the smoothing out of the panel, the elevator 502 is lowered by reverse operation of cylinder 504 to return the elevator to the FIGURE 6 position and redeposit the panel on the top flight of the conveyor chains 71 for transfer by the conveyor away from the unpleating press 500.

The use of rubber rolls as shown in FIGURE 7 has proven of material advantage as respects ability to iron out the burlap pleats. Additionally, the rubber rolls have been found to have relatively soft contact on the burlap material such as to avoid any wear of the burlap fibers or fuzzing of the general burlap surfacecontour. Previous to the use of rubber rolls attempts had been made to iron out the burlap pleats using laterally traveling brushes arranged on endless chains and operating along the upper surface of the burlap outwardly laterally from the bar 508. Such brushes in general were satisfactory as regards smoothing out of the pleats, but they suffered to some extent because they had a tendency to Wear the burlap and set up a fuzzy burlap surface contour. With the illustrated arrangement such a disadvantageous condition is avoided.

As pointed out above, after the unpleating of the panels so that they assume a flat condition substantially as shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, the paper edges are applied and cut and the completed panel assemblies are discharged into the cartons at the end of the machine. While many of the various devices employed in the manufacture of the reinforced panels have been only briefly described, reference may be had to our copendingapplication Serial No. 38,402 for a more complete description thereof.

The apparatus illustrated and described herein is op- .erated so as to cut the fabricipanels to length before pleating and insertion of the reinforcing strands. However, the panels could be cut to length after insertion of the strands. The shear blade 86 can be placed at the downstream end of the machine so that the severing of the individual panels occurs only after all of the other operations, pleating, strand insertion, unpleating, etc., have been completed. Apparatus as thus modified, in which the panels are severed as the last operation, is described in our copending application Serial No. 38,402. Accordingly, the piece of material which is pleated and unpleated and into which the strands are inserted may be either individual panels or the continuous web before it is severed into panels. Stated another way, the panels may be either separate members already severed from the continuous web, or they may be unsevered and still an integral part of the web.

Whether the panels are severed before pleating, as illustrated and described, or after unpleating, the unpleating or smoothing apparatus will function in the same way.

What we claim as our invention is:

1. Apparatus for smoothing out the pleats in a piece of material, said apparatus comprising right and left, laterally spaced presser devices respectively having right and left rolls, said rolls being laterally spaced and their axes of rotation being horizontal and parallel to one another, a support beneath said rolls for supporting the material'in a position to be engaged by the peripheries of said rolls, means for rotating said left roll clockwise and said right roll counter-clockwise, whereby when said material is so oriented on said support that the pleats thereof extend longitudinally of said rolls, said rolls will smooth out said pleats, means for relatively moving said support and presser devices vertically toward and away from each other to move the piece of material on said support into and out of engagement with said rolls, and a member midway between and fixed relative to said presser devices and cooperable with said support upon relative movement thereof toward said presser devices to grip and hold the piece of material therebetween, thereby preventing the piece of material from shifting laterally.

2. Apparatus for unpleating a pleated piece of material, said apparatus comprising right and left, laterally spaced presser devices respectively having right and left material-extending rolls, said rolls being laterally spaced from each other and their axes of rotation being horizontal and parallel to one another, a support beneath said rolls for supporting the material in a position to be frictionally engaged by the peripheries of said rolls, means for rotating said left roll clockwise and said right roll counter-clockwise, whereby when said material is so oriented on said support that the pleats thereof extend longitudinally of said rolls, said rolls will extend and thereby unpleat said material, means for relatively moving said support and presser devices vertically toward and away from each other to move the piece of material on said support into and out of engagement with said rolls, and means for feeding the material onto said support for unpleating and away from said support after unpleating, the direction of the feeding movement being parallel to said roll axes.

3. The apparatus defined in claim 2, wherein means are provided for holding the piece of material from shifting laterally after said support and presser devices have been relatively moved vertically toward each other and whilesaid rolls engage the piece of material.

4. The apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein each roll has a plurality of longitudinally spaced, annular grooves in its periphery, the grooves in said rolls being aligned, said grooves providing clearance for transversely extending reinforcing strands in the piece of material when the peripheries of said rolis engage the piece of material to smooth out the pleats therein.

5. The apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein the surfaces of said rolls are eccentric with respect to their axes of rotation to intermittently engage the pleats of the piece of material.

6. Apparatus for smoothing out the pleats in a pleated panel, said apparatus comprising right and left laterally spaced presser devices respectively having right and left rolls, said rolls being laterally spaced and their axes of rotation being horizontal and parallel to one another, a horizontal conveyor for moving the panels along a path beneath the rolls of said presser devices, the path of conveyor movement being parallel to the axes of said rolls, said conveyor including a plurality of elongated, laterally spaced, longitudinally extending, horizontal coplanar panel-supporing elements extending beneath said rolls, an elevator beneath said rolls and movable vertically between raised and lowered positions, said elevator having a plurality of laterally spaced panel-supporting elements in the lowered position of said elevator the panel-supporting elements thereof being disposed beneath the plane of the panel-supporting elements of said-conveyor and in the raised position of said elevator the panel-supporting elements thereof entering between the spaces of said conveyor elements to pick up the panel from the conveyor elements and raise the same into frictional engagement with the peripheries of said rolls, a gripper bar midway between said presser devices adapted in the raised position of said elevator to engage the midsection of the panel thereon and grip the same in cooperation with one of said elevator blocks to prevent lateral shifting movement of the panel, and means for rotating said left roll clockwise and said right roll counterclockwise, whereby, when said elevator is in raised position and the panel is so oriented thereon that the pleats thereof extend longitudinally of said rolls, said rolls will smooth out the panel pleats.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,023,734 4/12 Haas 3849 1,415,262 5/22 Norrie 38-9 1,871,436 8/32 Waream 3855 1,879,556 9/32 Skitt 38-4 2,180,046 11/39 Gleissner 38-44 X 2,940,194 6/60 Kinzelman 3849 3,118,239 1/64 Suits et al 3855 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

THOMAS J. HICKEY, Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR SMOOTHING OUT THE PLEATS IN A PIECE OF MATERIAL, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING RIGHT AND LEFT, LATERALLY SPACED PRESSER DEVICES RESPECTIVELY HAVING RIGHT AND LEFT ROLLS, SAID ROLLS BEING LATERALLY SPACED AND THEIR AXES OF ROTATION BEING HORIZONTAL AND PARALLEL TO ONE ANOTHER, A SUPPORT BENEATH SAID ROLLS OF SUPPORTING THE MATERIAL IN A POSITION TO BE ENGAGED BY THE PERIPHERIES OF SAID ROLLS, MEANS FOR ROTATING SAID LEFT ROLL CLOCKWISE AND SAID RIGHT ROLL COUNTER-CLOCKWISE, WHEREBY WHEN SAID MATERIAL IS SO ORIENTED ON SAID SUPPORT THAT THE PLEATS THEREOF EXTEND LONGITUDINALLY OF SAID ROLLS, SAID ROLLS WILL SMOOTH OUT SAID PLEATS, MEANS FOR RELATIVELY MOVING SAID SUPPORT AND PRESSER DEVICES VERTICALLY TOWARD AND AWAY FROM EACH OTHER TO MOVE THE PIECE OF MATERIAL ON SAID SUPPORT INTO AND OUT OF ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID ROLLS, AND A MEMBER MIDWAY BETWEEN AND FIXED RELTIVE TO SAID PRESSER DEVICES AND COOPERABLE WITH SAID SUPPORT UPON RELATIVE MOVEMENT THEREOF TOWARD SAID PRESSURE DEVICES TO GRIP AND HOLD THE PIECE OF MATERIAL THEREBETWEEN, THEREBY PREVENTING THE PIECE OF MATERIAL FROM SHIFTING LATERALLY. 